Tina Brown And Arianna Huffington Respond To Allegations Of A Feud That Never Was

Last week, the Guardianfeatured a piece on Daily Beast founder Tina Brown’s bid for Newsweek, mentioning that the move was fueled in part by the ongoing competition between Brown and her so-called arch nemesis, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington.

Over the weekend, the two women — both of whom, in fact, made it onto Forbes‘ list of the most powerful woman this year — responded to this allegation by each posting an IM exchange between the two on their respective websites.

We’ll be perfectly frank and admit we read the entire conversation as a sort of light-hearted joke about the matter, and believe said IM exchange never actually happened. At the very least, it’s apparent that the two women have decided to brush aside any rumors of bad blood between them and present, at the very least, a united front, if not an attempt demonstrate that the two are actually good friends.

Transcript appears after the jump:

AriHuff: Uh-oh.

TBrown: I know– The Guardian.

AriHuff: How did they find out we “simply cannot stand each other”? I thought we’d done such a good job hiding it over the past four decades…

TBrown: The cat’s really out of the bag now. How the hell were they able to track down that “unnamed media executive” who is so “familiar” with both of us?

AriHuff: Got to hand it to The Guardian. We are sooooo busted. What’s really sad is that this is exactly the type of fearless, extremely well-sourced investigative reporting that sites like ours are putting out of business.

TBrown: Yeah, I know. Maybe it was that guy lurking around at the book party the other night. He must’ve overheard us discussing our diversionary plans to go to our girls’ college football game and take them to dinner afterwards. How did he figure out it was all an elaborate, time-consuming, and pointless act?

AriHuff: Obviously he’s been tracking us for a while. And he clearly picked up on the hostility I showed by hosting a lunch for you to celebrate your Diana book hitting the bestseller lists. Or when I asked you to blog on HuffPost–which you did, on the first day we launched, you bitch.

TBrown: Yep. It takes a real nose for news — I mean, even bigger than your big Greek nose — to realize we were putting up a smokescreen that time we went on vacation together with the kids in Ireland; or that time we went on that girls’ spa escape when you were editing your galleys and I was boning up for my wondrous Di book.

AriHuff: I truly thought we’d pulled the wool over their eyes when I agreed to contribute to The Daily Beast when it launched. Or when HuffPost named you one of our 2009 Game Changers, saying that The Daily Beast was “pure Tina yet completely true to the Web, merging the high and low.” Or when I was quoted saying I considered you “a great friend and a great editor.” But the super-sleuths at The Guardian are obviously just too damn good at this old-school gumshoe journalism thing to fall for that old ruse.

TBrown: Those brilliant newshounds even realized what it really meant when I ran an extract of your new book, Third World America, two weeks ago. Or featured you in that gallery we did on The Beast as one of the 25 smartest people of the decade, with the citation you had turned “the concepts of content aggregation and citizen journalists into an essential media platform,” blah blah blah.

AriHuff: Think they would ever run a piece about two guys’ business strategy being fueled solely by bitch-slap rivalry?

TBrown: Tell me about it. The male editors around town all must be bosom buddies, because otherwise The Guardian’s crack investigative team would no doubt have exposed them.

AriHuff: BTW, it was cunning of you to spin the Newsweek/Beast rumors just to get back at me, and so sweet of Barry to suggest you start The Beast as your revenge vehicle.

TBrown: Well, when I heard Forbes was going to press with its Most Powerful Women list with me at 34 and you at 28, it sent me right over the top!

AriHuff: At least we were both higher than the queen. Have you talked to her lately, you royal toady?

TBrown: Just last week, you big slice of gyro. She’s still really pissed at all the attention showered on Helen Mirren in The Queen.

Subscribe to Adweek

Featured Courses

Facebook MarketingBuild a fan base and grow your business on FacebookLearn more >Google AnalyticsMaster Google Analytics to build traffic and increase revenue for your brandLearn more >Content ManagementCreate, edit, and publish content using CMS platformsLearn more >Public Relations: Build Your PortfolioMaster the key documents you need to succeed in PRLearn more >See more Courses >